In general, containers used for storing and/or transporting goods are compactly nested in each other when they are empty and placed or stacked on top of each other in a secure and stable manner when they are filled. These storage and transport containers are therefore designed according to a nesting and stacking principal, according to which two similarly aligned containers can be stacked above one another and two oppositely aligned containers can be nested in each other. Different types of such transport containers are known according to this nesting and stacking principle.
DE-297 07 715 U1 discloses a transport container having side walls, arranged in a rectangular way relative to the floor surface, the upper half of which is provided with ribs and handles and the upper half of the side walls is outwardly offset relative to the lower side walls, with the transitional section being formed by a shoulder. The perpendicular side walls comprise positioning elements on their upper edge and stiffening struts on the profiled outer surface and inner perpendicular positioning grooves. Perpendicular feet are arranged on the lower halves, which with respect to dimensions and arrangement are adjusted to each other in such a way that a second container can be nested in one direction in a first container and can be stacked in a reversed alignment. The feet comprise latching springs at their ends on the floor side and latching grooves on the upper edge of the side walls, with the feet being adjusted to the grooves and the latching springs of the feet to the latching grooves of the upper edge in their dimensions so that two containers can be nested in one direction and can be stacked in the opposite direction. The latching grooves of the upper edge of the side walls are dimensionally adjusted to the latching elements of individual feet of a container with half the base surface in such a way that two smaller containers can be stacked in any desired direction on a larger container.
Transport containers without lids are also known. In general, these containers have the shape of reversed truncated pyramids, i.e. they taper downwardly in their cross section and can be nested and stacked according to the nesting and stacking principle. These transport containers also allow stacking two smaller containers in any desired direction on a larger container.
The disadvantage of the transport containers described above is that only smaller containers can be stacked over a larger container, but not vice-versa. The floor surfaces of the containers lie lower than the upper edges of the stacked containers underneath in the case of containers stacked above one another. When a large container is placed for stacking on top of two smaller containers arranged adjacent to each other, its floor surface rests on the adjacent upper edges of the longitudinal sides of the small container and the latching elements on the upper edge of the side walls cannot engage in an interlocking way with the latching elements of the lower side of the container stacked on top. The large container stacked on top of the two smaller containers is thus not securely stacked in a slip-proof way.
Not only it is desirable that small containers can be securely stacked on large containers, but it is also desirable that large containers can be stacked on two adjacently arranged small containers.